Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, 2020, College of Sciences and Health Professions

The present research explores an intersection between terror management theory and self-determination theory. Depending on what values are salient, terror management theory research has found that mortality salience can lead to both hostile and/or prosocial worldview defense behaviors in order to mitigate death anxiety. Self-determination theory holds that people are naturally oriented toward growth and well-being, with autonomy serving as an important component of healthy psychological functioning. Recent findings have indicated evidence of the buffering ability of autonomous-orientation on death anxiety, but it has only been evidenced with eliminating hostile worldview defense behaviors. It was predicted that reminding participants of their mortality would increase their defense of a salient prosocial worldview, but priming autonomy would eliminate the effect. Participants were randomly assigned to a mortality salience vs. neutral condition and an autonomy vs. controlled-orientation condition, and then asked to indicate their support for the expanding of immigration policies. Results indicated that priming mortality (vs. neutral) led participants to uphold tolerant immigration attitudes by indicating greater support for the expansion of immigration, but priming autonomy (vs. controlled-orientation) attenuated that support, providing evidence for the general buffering effect of autonomy.

Committee: Kenneth Vail PhD (Committee Chair); Eric Allard PhD (Committee Member); Elizabeth Goncy PhD (Committee Member); Shereen Naser PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, 2019, College of Sciences and Health Professions

Terror Management Theory posits that people are motivated to defend against death awareness by maintaining cultural beliefs and behaviors that transcend mortality— sometimes motivating hostile, even militaristic, defenses of one's culture. In contrast, self-determination theory suggests that autonomous regulation (self-determination) serves as a platform for personal growth and well-being. However, the present thesis suggests that, in addition to fueling growth, self-determination may also help buffer against the awareness of mortality, thus mitigating the impact of death awareness on hostile cultural worldview defense. To test this hypothesis, American participants were randomly assigned to be reminded of mortality or a control topic, then randomly assigned to be reminded of feelings of autonomy or being controlled, and then lastly completed a measure of one possible form of worldview defense: support for militaristic defense of American foreign policy interests in Syria. The present analysis found that death reminders increased that form of worldview defense, unless participants were first prompted to recall self-determination experiences.

Committee: Kenneth Vail Ph.D. (Advisor); Eric Allard Ph.D. (Committee Member); Elizabeth Goncy Ph.D. (Committee Member); Shereen Naser Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Experimental Psychology; Psychology; Social Psychology

Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, 2018, College of Sciences and Health Professions

Terror management theory (TMT) posits that people function effectively in the world, in part, by relying on social anxiety-buffer systems to protect against death awareness; however, a new extension called anxiety buffer disruption theory (ABDT), posits that traumatic experiences can overwhelm those buffers, leaving people vulnerable to death anxiety and at increased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. To test these hypotheses, participants with low and high posttraumatic stress symptoms were identified and recruited using a general population pre-screen, prompted to engage in a relationship threat priming task (vs. control topic), and then asked to complete a standard measure of death anxiety. The present research found that: 1) when posttraumatic stress symptoms were low, death anxiety was low in a control condition but increased following a threat to social relationships (a known death-anxiety buffer); but, 2) when posttraumatic stress symptoms were high, death anxiety was high in both the social threat and control condition, indicating overwhelmed/disrupted normative buffering. The present research could potentially bear new insights for the understanding of posttraumatic stress, how relate to others, to the world around them, and to their own mortality, and could provide some hints toward practical implications for improving the treatment of PTSD.

Committee: Kenneth Vail III, PhD (Advisor); Robert Hurley PhD (Committee Member); Eric Allard PhD (Committee Member); Ilya Yaroslavsky PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology; Social Psychology

Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, 2017, College of Sciences and Health Professions

The present thesis builds on terror management theory and anxiety buffer disruption theory to propose that although existential motivation normally leads people to become more certain of their worldviews, traumatic experiences can disrupt those belief systems and cause people to respond to death-awareness by making an open-minded search for alternative belief systems instead. To test that hypothesis, groups of participants with low and high levels of traumatic stress were reminded of death (vs. a control topic condition), followed by an assessment of closed- and open-mindedness. Thus, the present research explored the previously untested hypothesis that increased awareness of mortality will boost ideological dogmatism among those with low levels of traumatic stress (for whom established worldview buffers are unchallenged), but that MS will lead to reduced ideological dogmatism (open-minded approach to alternative belief systems) among those with high levels of traumatic stress (for whom established worldview buffers are challenged). The data failed to replicate data that suggest low levels of traumatic stress lead to higher dogmatism after a mortality salience. However, the data does align with the idea that higher levels of trauma do lead to more ideological open-mindedness.

Committee: Kenneth Vail Ph.D. (Advisor); Eric Allard Ph.D. (Committee Member); Conor McLennan Ph.D. (Committee Member); Ilya Yaroslavsky Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Communication

When people experience reminders of their mortality, anxiety heightens. This, in turn, can increase worldview defenses such as outgroup derogation. In this experiment, White participants (N = 190) read an online news story that presented a death threat (death threat, non-death threat) and identity threat (White threat, Black threat, race-neutral threat) manipulation. Following exposure to the experimental manipulation, participants completed measures of anxiety, specific self-esteem, and worldview defense. A multicategorical moderation supported the integration of specific self-esteem in social identity processes. The findings from moderated mediation analyses support previous terror management research (Greenberg et al., 1997): When exposure to a death threat has not been sufficiently suppressed, anxiety from the threat can manifest in worldview defenses. Results demonstrate that specific self-esteem buffers anxiety elicited from threats unrelated to racial identity. Implications include identity processes by which the effects of threat can be mitigated.

Committee: Jesse Fox (Advisor); Lanier Holt (Committee Member); Nancy Rhodes (Committee Member); Zheng Wang (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Psychology; Social Psychology; Social Research; Statistics; Web Studies

Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, 2023, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

A large body of research has investigated the role of religious belief within terror management theory and the cognitive science of religion, with interesting results emerging for atheists as compared to religious individuals. While atheists explicitly disavow religion, implicit measurement techniques have revealed an intuitive belief in religious concepts, particularly following reminders of death (Jong et al., 2012). However, to date, no studies have directly observed the cognitive processes that underlie these effects. In response to this gap in the literature, the present study seeks to propose and test a model of the cognitive pathways utilized by religious and atheistic individuals as they manage existential concerns. Specifically, this model proposes that following mortality salience (MS), both religious and atheistic individuals experience intuitive religious belief due to evolutionary cognitive biases. These intuitions are then consciously shaped in accordance with explicitly endorsed ideologies, leading religious individuals to accept intuitive religious belief and atheistic individuals to override their intuitions with a more analytic orientation. As such, the present study hypothesized that MS (compared to pain) would lead to decreased need for cognition (NFC) in Christians but increased NFC in atheists. In a sample of 248 adults, an ANOVA indicated that Christians primed with MS reported lower NFC than those primed with pain, while the opposite effect emerged for atheists, providing compelling evidence for the proposed model. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Committee: Kenneth Vail III (Advisor); Kathleen Reardon (Committee Member); Michael Horvath (Committee Member); Eric Allard (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology; Religion; Social Psychology

Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, 2018, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

The scenario of the atheist in the proverbial foxhole has been a topic of discussion in religious circles for centuries. Building on prior research utilizing terror management theory (TMT), a dual process model of cognition, and previous work suggesting that humans are intuitively wired for teleological and religious concepts, the researchers set out to examine atheist's religiosity when confronted with the reality of one's impermanence. To explore this idea, the present experiment recruited a sample of atheists, manipulated their awareness of mortality, manipulated their ability to employ analytic thinking, and measured various intuitive cognitions (e.g., teleological reasoning) alongside religious belief. Results suggest that atheists in the speeded conditions reported higher agreement with teleological items; but the same did not happen for religious items. Additionally, atheists primed with mortality salience (vs. control) reported lower agreement with religious items in the un-speeded condition, but not in the speeded condition; a similar interaction was not observed for the teleology items. Limitations and potential directions for future research are discussed.

Committee: Kenneth Vail (Advisor) Subjects: Experimental Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2018, Experimental Psychology (Arts and Sciences)

Busyness is often preferred over idleness (Hsee, Yang, & Wang, 2010). Drawing from Terror Management Theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986), I argue that existential concerns regarding inevitable personal mortality, in part, contribute to preference for busyness. Three studies support this reasoning. In Study 1, mortality salience increased behavioral busyness. In Study 2, mortality salience marginally elevated favorability toward a busy (vs. idle) individual. In Study 3, being busy reduced the need to engage alternative self-esteem striving-related defenses following a reminder of death. Discussion considers the terror management function of busyness.

Committee: Mark Alicke PhD (Committee Chair) Subjects: Social Psychology

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2011, Communication

This study examined the effects of mortality salience on the opinions and preferences of people with different religious or philosophical worldviews. Specifically, participants completed a religious fundamentalist scale, a post-materialist index, and a cultural creativity index. Each participant was then randomly asked to think about the concept of death or a control topic. Finally, participants were asked to provide their opinions on a number of topics regarding prayer efficacy, media preference, and risk assessment. This study found supporting evidence that reminders of one's mortality tend to exaggerate any distrust of modern medicine held by religious fundamentalists, even if those reminders are not related to the medical issue at hand. It also provided some evidence that similar concerns held by post-materialists may be generally exaggerated under similar conditions. In addition, it was hypothesized that participants would consider potentially risky driving behaviors to be less dangerous when mortality was salient. This study found supporting evidence that religious fundamentalists were less concerned about the risks of driving with multiple passengers when mortality was salient. If assessments of other, riskier behaviors (such as texting while driving) mirror these results, mortality salience and religious perspective must be considered when attempting to discourage such behavior. It was also hypothesized that participants in the mortality salient group would prefer to get their news from sources that shared their point of view. However, no evidence was found to support this hypothesis. In fact, politically liberal participants were less likely to prefer liberal news sources when mortality was made salient. Since so many news stories and television shows deal with issues of mortality, media selection may depend in part on a combination of philosophical perspectives and the content of the news.

Committee: Gerald Kosicki PhD (Advisor); Michael McCluskey PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Political Science; Psychology; Religion; Social Psychology; Sociology; Spirituality

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Marietta College, 2010, Psychology

Research on terror management theory suggests that mortality salience (MS) leads people to reject out-group members. The present study investigated the influence of MS on perceptions of a target labeled with anorexia in contrast to a target labeled with diabetes using a 2 (mortality salience: high vs. control) x2 (diagnostic label: anorexia vs. diabetic) random block design. I expected to find a significant MS by diagnostic label interaction, hypothesizing that participants would give significantly lower opinion ratings to the anorexic target under the high MS condition than those in other conditions. Results showed no significant interaction. There was a significant main effect between diagnostic label and several opinion ratings. This finding supports previous research on the stigma of mental disorders.

Committee: Mark Sibicky PhD (Advisor); Jacqueline Khorassani PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

PHD, Kent State University, 2011, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

The present study investigated of the role of trauma characteristics in Terror Management Theory (TMT) in a sample of 257 undergraduate students. Specifically, I aimed to investigate whether traumatic writing in individuals who had experienced a trauma would induce worldview defense similarly to a traditional Mortality Salience (MS) design in both traumatized and non-traumatized individuals. Further, research has suggested that worldview defense may be mitigated by secure attachment. Thus, as a secondary analysis, I investigated whether or not attachment-related avoidance and anxiety dimensions moderated worldview defense for both traumatized and non-traumatized individuals. Results indicated that rates of defense were low overall, yet unique trauma characteristics and symptoms were predictive of defense of benevolence and meaningfulness. Analyses investigating the moderating role of attachment demonstrated that for those who had experienced trauma, after controlling for time 1 scores, higher levels of attachment related avoidance predicted lower post-induction self-worth. Higher levels of attachment related anxiety were associated overall with decreased time 2 levels of benevolence and self-worth. Results taken together suggest that trauma and specific characteristics of trauma may be more important than type of induction in predicting differences in worldview and worldview defense. The connection between trauma, TMT, and worldview is complex, and is an important area of future research.

Committee: Jeffrey Ciesla PhD (Committee Chair); Douglas Delahanty PhD (Committee Co-Chair); John Updegraff PhD (Committee Member); Gregory Smith PhD (Committee Member); Richard Adams PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology